Ask Our Expert

Sharing Student Broadband

Our Broadband Expert says...

Hi Stanley. This is a tough nut to crack. By instantly dismissing both a BT (www.bt.com) line and a Virgin Media (www.virginmedia.com) cable connection, your options are essentially very limited. A re-think may be required on one of these decisions if you’re going to get true value for money.

We’ve compiled a list of the top packages we believe are best suited for student broadband. By referencing these packages and giving a rundown of their pros and cons throughout the article, hopefully you will be able to make a more rounded decision as to which provider to choose. Our top providers are:

(1) Be Unlimited (www.bethere.co.uk)
(2) Plusnet Option 3 (www.plus.net)
(3) Virgin Media Broadband XL (www.virginmedia.com)
(4) O2 Ultimate Broadband (www.O2.co.uk

Student Broadband – Key Considerations

First up, it’s important to nominate between the five of you the person whose account is going to be debited for the monthly charge. Paying your ISP by direct debit will cost you nothing; paying by any other method (cheques in particular) is likely to bring a surcharge (up to £5 per transaction in some cases). Although £5 between five people only equates to a pound each, I’m sure that, as students, you’re well acquainted with the concept of saving money.

Also, you can save £60 if one of you has an existing O2 mobile phone contract with O2’s Ultimate Broadband (4). Moreover, with Virgin Broadband XL (3) you're potentially saving £10.50 a month on line rental plus the cost of landline installation.

Once you’ve nominated your ‘banker’, you need to start thinking about the following:

• Do we want a short or long term contract?
• Will the ISP supply us with hardware that can accommodate five separate connections?
• How much can we afford to pay?
• How heavily will we use these connections?

Contract versus No Contract

To contract or not to contract, that is the question.

In your case, I’d say to contract is the answer, but for no more than 12 months. Given your circumstances, it’s highly unlikely you’ll still be living in that same property beyond the next 12 months.

Be Broadband (1) offers a great contract at only 3 months. Perfect for students. The following table drives this message home:

18, 24 and 36 month contracts should be avoided, they’re really not appropriate in your case

Multiple Connectivity

A - Wireless Broadband

Connecting wirelessly is a far more realistic solution to your multiple user problem. (Check out our Wireless Broadband guide).

Wireless routers can accommodate a number of connectors at any one given time. In fact, Virgin Media have gone so far as to claim their wireless router can handle ‘up to 255 computers using the wireless interface’. Hmmm…..

Anyway, all five of you will be able to connect your laptops, games consoles and PDAs wirelessly in a network with a wireless router.

The Virgin Media Broadband XL (3) 20Mb connection (a service that Virgin Media have promised to boost to 50Mb by the autumn) would remedy any overloading problems you may face when all five of you are online.

Should you wish to take the wireless connectivity route, invest in a signal booster or repeater.

B - Multi-Port Dual Routers

Wireless routers with multiple ports will support additional wired connections. Wired connections are faster than wireless connections, therefore you will benefit from faster speeds if you pursue this avenue.

For example, Virgin Media Broadband XL (www.virginmedia.com) (3) and Plusnet's (www.plus.net) Option 3 (2) both offer a 4 port wireless router with both wired and wireless functionality.

C - Connection Speed and Download Limit

Multiple devices must be driven by a package that has a high connection speed to function successfully, especially if it is likely that more than one of you will be using the connection simultaneously.

Equally as imperative is a generous download limit. As a group of five students living together, I anticipate you’ll each be downloading a vast amount of research files on a daily basis, not to mention larger reports come dissertation time. The Be Broadband Unlimited (1) usage policy has no restrictions, and would therefore be perfect for multiple simultaneous users.

Potential Matches

Be Broadband – Suppliers of the fastest broadband in the UK, a Be Broadband connection would adequately support a multi-port router.

If you required an even faster connection, you could always go for the Be Unlimited package that has all of the above, plus a connection speed of up to 24Mbps.

The drawback here is you’ll have to return the hardware as soon as that contract is over.

Plusnet – Plusnet’s Option 3 offers you free a wireless 4 port router when you sign up to either a 1 month or 12 month contract.

Virgin Media – You might have to swallow your pride on this one, but Virgin Media could offer a solution to your multi-user dilemma.

The problem with the offerings from both Be Broadband and Plusnet is that you will have to pay for line rental. With Virgin Media, the supply comes straight from the cable.

O2 – If one of your housemates is on an O2 mobile phone contract, you might benefit from a saving of £60 on the O2 premium broadband package. Again, this is a 12 month contract, but at only £120 a year (if one of you has that O2 contract), it’s a bargain for 16Mb broadband & unlimited usage.

Last Resort - Mobile Broadband

The five of you using separate portable USB modems is a workable solution, allowing you all complete autonomy over connection, package and provider. Additionally, this option grants you the ability to access the internet at home, in lectures and at your parents’ house during the holidays.

On the downside, mobile broadband connections can’t support multiple users, so you’ll all have to effectively go it alone (the ‘band of brothers’ spirit will certainly be lost). Obtaining one portable USB to share between the five of you would remedy this, but data charges are likely to be astronomical, not to mention the squabbling that would take place when more than one person wants to get online.

The saving grace for mobile broadband in your scenario is that it would save £246 a year on line rental and land line installation.

How Can Broadband Choices Help?

Download our Broadband Download Monitor (BDM) to monitor your downloading activity and make sure you don’t exceed the level specified by your broadband provider.

NB Best buy tables (orange background) are always current.

Examples in the text of the article (white background) are correct at time of publication.

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If you have a general switching or provider query please email us at OurExpert@broadbandchoices.co.uk

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